I experienced an issue with Software Distribution. My client workstation was receiving partial peices of the software to be installed, but no dice. Software package was received, but no failures, no programs started, no program errors, and no program success. ConfigMgr admin console shows the software advertisement was definitely received. Below are the steps needed and the information to what you need to do to get IIS to approve the files needed to installed.

ConfigMgr Status Shows Advertisement Created

A Software Distribution package was created and advertised. The client receives the command to download the software and install as needed. Here is where the issue starts. From the ConfigMgr admin console, site status shows the package was created and advertised as needed (Fig 1).

Fig. 1

Client Shows Activity

After a few mintues I notice two things happening on the client that tells me there is activity going on. One was I can see the msiexec.exe process actively running from Task Manager. The other thing I noticed was the performance monitor showing activity. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2

Advertisement Status Shows Received

From this point all looks fine and dandy so I wanted to wait a few minutes to ensure I gave enough time for the application to install. I check the client and there is no sign of the app being installed. However, ConfigMgr admin console claims the advertisement has been received with no failures, no programs started, no program errors, and no program success. (Fig. 3)

Fig. 3

IIS: Invalid Namespace Directory

I hopped on over to the ConfigMgr Software Distribution TechNet forums and dicovered someone who had the same issue. Turns out, IIS was blocking file extensions needed to allow the software distribution to complete. Here is a view of the log file reviewed from the DistributionPoint server from the following directory \\server_here\c$\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC1\. (Fig. 4)

Fig. 4

Modify ApplicationHost.Config File

From this IIS log file, we were able to determine the ending part of the troublesome line shows a 404 8 which is another way of saying the following directory contains an invalid name space (source: Microsoft.com). The directory in detail is the ../Program+Files/SMS/PCW/I86/24000041/bin/FarPoint.Win.Spread.dll. From the ConfigMgr server, navigate to c:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config and open the applicationHost.config file with any text editor (In my case I used Notepad). Navigate to the following section name <requestFiltering>. From this part you must remove the element blocking your directory path. In my case, it was simply removing the <add segment=”bin” /> element (Fig. 5)

Fig. 5

Your final steps are complete. Now just delete the advertisement and re-create it. Give it a few minutes and you should now see the activity running on the client again and within a few minutes, you should have your application installed.

Hit the Windows + R keys on your keyboard (this will bring up the RUN command box).

Type CMD (short for command) and hit Enter

Once your Command Prompt Window comes up, type systeminfo.

This is where you will find your System Boot Time. This is information is relevant if you are like me, and wondering how long your box has been alive. There are plenty of other ways of accessing information of this type and the are other methods for retrieving other information for the same purpose. Below are a few other extra examples of using these features to your advantage.

MSINFO32:

Hit the Windows + R keys on your keyboard (this will bring up the RUN command box).

Type MSINFO32 and hit Enter.

This is information is good for troubleshooting purposes to detemine what the physical hardware and software attributes of your system are.